black and white bed linen

Every teenager feels like they're living two lives. Dee Collins actually is.

half/life is a five-book YA/NA series about one soul, two parallel worlds and growing up British from 1999 to 2016. It starts with Mess, coming December 2026.

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half/life

Book One: Mess (1999-2000)
A bookshelf filled with a variety of science fiction and fantasy novels, including titles like 'The Iron Tower' and 'The War of Powers'. The books are organized neatly on wooden shelves. In the foreground, there is a metallic chair with visible legs, placed over a floor with white and red hazard tape markings.
A bookshelf filled with a variety of science fiction and fantasy novels, including titles like 'The Iron Tower' and 'The War of Powers'. The books are organized neatly on wooden shelves. In the foreground, there is a metallic chair with visible legs, placed over a floor with white and red hazard tape markings.
7:01am. Danny. 7:03am. Danni.

Dee went to sleep in 1999 and woke up in the new millennium, twice. They missed Christmas, New Year and the end of the world.

Since the accident, sixteen-year-old Dee wakes up each morning in one of two almost identical worlds. Same comprehensive, same GCSE panic, different body, different rules.

But Dee only gets half of each life. On the days they're gone, someone else is living it. Shadow-Dee makes the choices, keeps the secrets and leaves the mess for Dee to find. Every choice ripples differently between the worlds, and somewhere in one of them is the driver who ran Dee over and started all this.

To end the half/life, Dee has to work out who did it, and who they really are.

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  • Anyone who's ever changed their MSN name to song lyrics after a breakup

  • Fans of honest stories about growing up British, from Skins to This Is England

  • Readers who love a Sliding Doors "what if?"

  • Anyone who's ever felt caught between different versions of themselves

The series
Perfect for

Walk the halls of Millbrook Comprehensive twice. As Danny, Dee fights for high scores at the arcade and hides a GamesMaster collection from potential crushes. As Danni, they navigate sleepover politics, unwanted attention and the unspoken rules of MSN drama. There's a French oral to dodge, house parties fuelled by White Lightning and first relationships to fumble, twice. Living two lives doesn't make it easier to figure out who you are. It just gives you twice as much to mess up.


Coming December 2026: join the list for the release date

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Alaric Stevens is also writing a fantasy series that subverts the usual tropes, and a dark fantasy/horror retelling of Camelot. Join the list to hear first.

Also in the works

About Alaric Stevens

Alaric Stevens writes speculative fiction about the things that shape us: growing up, the roads not taken and the versions of ourselves we leave behind. half/life is his love letter, and a warning, to anyone who came of age between dial-up and smartphones.

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A grand, fairytale-like castle stands majestically atop a forested hill. Its towers and spires pierce through the mist and clouds that cover the scene, creating a mystical atmosphere.
A grand, fairytale-like castle stands majestically atop a forested hill. Its towers and spires pierce through the mist and clouds that cover the scene, creating a mystical atmosphere.

Reach out for inquiries about my YA and fantasy novels or collaborations on upcoming projects.

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© 2026 Alaric Stevens · Published by ADS Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Get the Mess release date, early chapters and the occasional 1999 throwback.